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Oct 26, 2009

Fall Beautiful

A nice walk along the Charles on a rainy Saturday afternoon turned into a pleasant surprise when one of us decided that we need to cross the Harvard bridge and go to the Boston Public Library. I was not impressed. Nonetheless, aimless as I was at that time, I just followed the leader of the group. We went past JP Licks and the Prudential Tower onto Boylston Street when it gradually stopped raining. And I must tell you, these rare times when the rain has spared you and you are on your own to explore the cool cozy nooks of Boston amidst like minded aimless crowd is a thriller. We went to the Public Library and to my surprise it was teeming with literature aficionados. It was then revealed to us that the Boston Book Festival was happening now! Thinking among ourselves how lucky we were, we started exploring the various books and stuff for display at Copley square right next to the Library where a part of the fair was happening. One particular booth which caught my attention was the ‘one laptop per child’ NGO’s. The people there informed me how successful the campaign was in Peru and Uruguay and I was really happy to know about these positives.

We walked along the same street to the frog pond and the public garden which were at their ’sampled’ best in the hues of the fall. It was magical. I recommend watching “The Untold Scandal” (a movie shown at the 3rd MIT Korean Film Festival) or “The House of Flying Daggers” (a Chinese movie) to compare and imagine the scenic beauty of New England fall which treated our eyes right then. It was surreal, at least for me.

We then dodged around a couple of streets to catch a commuter rail to Brandeis University where one of our friend studies. A sudden plan. I guess we were up for an atypical grad life routine. Not just was the train journey awesome again capturing our minds in the splendid display of fall colors, the stay at Brandeis was wonderful too, with a special gathering of International students at the Heller Center that evening. The theme was “celebration of central and south central Asia’s cultural heritage”. I was thinking, you must be insanely lucky to get invited to such a nice event. International students from that School wore traditional dresses, performed traditional dances, sang songs, presented their country’s panorama in a stupefying display. It was the first time I met people from Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Tibet as well as the Ivory Coast, Ghana, South Africa and many more in one single social mixer of an academic department. As would be a natural consequence, we danced after the formal closing of the event well into the night till our legs ached.

After seeking refuge at our friends place for the night, we head back to Quincy market to taste some good cuisine as well check out street performances and bustling Boston. Boston Monster March event was also taking place at the nearby Government center. And I tell you, a simple walk along the Charles can make you come back to your burrow after an adventure if you are careless enough and it is a weekend.

The author has filed this entry under the "eureka moments, frolic, outside the lab" category.

A Response To This Entry:

    It was a wonderful blog by Mr. Theja. He captured the various hues of Boston in this short write-up.

    Posted by: Vigil Varghese on November 4th, 2009 at 12:23 am

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